Knox reference underwhelming: Fotis

A teacher who was asked to resign from an elite private school when he was charged with performing a sex act in public, expected to get a "richer" reference from the headmaster of Knox Grammar.

Christopher Fotis was asked to resign from the Sydney school in 1989 by the headmaster Ian Paterson.

He was given a reference which noted his enthusiasm for his job and his enormous help with extra-curricular events but which made no mention of why he was asked to leave or other complaints against him.

On Tuesday Fotis told a royal commission that it was a "pretty underwhelming" reference.

Fotis was later found guilty of obscene exposure after he was caught masturbating in his car on a street in Ryde, Sydney.

He was also suspected by teachers and students at Knox of being the balaclava-wearing intruder who sexually molested a year 8 boarder about a year before he resigned.

He told Tuesday's hearing that he knew nothing about the balaclava-incident until he read evidence from the commission which started a hearing into Knox in February.